BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) - China is investigating FedEx Corp. on suspicion of illegally handling a package to Hong Kong containing knives that are controlled by law, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The knives have been confiscated by authorities, Xinhua said, without providing more details.

The case follows the discovery of a gun in a package delivered by FedEx to a company in China, the news agency reported Aug 18.

The latest package "was handled correctly via standard security protocol", FedEx said in a statement on Tuesday (Sept 3). It was sent by "a regular shipper" from the city of Guangzhou but wasn't delivered, the carrier said. Instead, it was turned over to authorities according to established procedures.

"The package never left its origin city, was never delivered, and remains with the authorities," FedEx said in an e-mail.

FedEx has been under scrutiny in recent months after Huawei Technologies Co. said documents it asked to be shipped from Japan to China were diverted to the U.S. instead without authorization.

In another incident, FedEx said it mistakenly rejected a package containing a Huawei phone being sent to the US from the UK, a claim China rebuffed.

FedEx delivers more than 15 million packages a day.